Fighter of the Decade: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr

By Bart Barry-

And our king returned on the final days of the
decade to save us.  Exiled 31 months since
a highpaying debacle of a battle for Mexico, Son of the Legend marched on
Phoenix with an army of 12,000 and merely 11 days to go in his decade, to restore
our kingdom with a panache none before him has brought. 

Son of the Legend (VADA ID#:
214371) fought 15 times in his decade, 15 times in 7 1/2 years, 50-percent
more frequently than Money May, mind you, and remained true to himself every
time he blessed a bluemat with his sacred boot. 
Highbrows can argue who was the decade’s best fighter (Roman Gonzalez is
the answer to that riddle), but no one can claim to have been a more apt
metaphor for our beloved sport.

A modern entity whose popularity is fully derived
from his predecessor’s accomplishments, Son of the Legend comported himself
always with an arrogance inexplicable to others.  The way the NHL looks at revenue from Mayweather-Pacquiao
is how 95-percent of the decade’s prizefighters looked at Junior: “Wait, how
much did he make for his pro debut?”

*

We interrupt this homage for some hard reporting.

When Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. faced Ireland’s John
Duddy in Alamodome to christen the new decade, June 26, 2010, some questioned
whether a suspended drug cheat had the necessary mettle to wrest from vacancy
the WBC’s prestigious middleweight Silver title.

For years, Chavez Jr. had waged a reign of terror
on Midwesterners – “kicking the Big Ten’s ass” as one scribe put it – and he
promised to do the same to Europeans if given a chance.

“They want to make money off my name and fame,”
Chavez Jr. said, without a hint of irony in his voice.

Chavez Jr. won impressively against Duddy and Lyell
and Zbik, Manfredo and Rubio and Lee – his record stood at an astounding 46-0-1
on Sept. 15, 2012 – and then he went for the real middleweight championship
against an Argentine named Maravilla.  He
lost every second of the fight’s first 34 1/2 minutes before delivering the
most exciting 30 seconds of boxing’s last 15 years.

Chavez Jr. was too exhausted to complete the
upset, of course, but by surprising everyone, he re-adorned his father’s name
with credibility for years to come.

Chavez Jr. collected a big gift decision against
Brian Vera then ratified it massively back at Alamodome a halfyear later before
stumbling a wee bit against somebody named Fonfara.  The people got displeased, failing universally
to credit his subsequent and huge wins against Reyes and Britsch, and demanded
Junior be fed to Canelo Alvarez, who subsequently refused to sit down, even,
between rounds of their sparring session.

Canelo went on to riches in the United States while
Chavez quietly gathered and perfected himself in their native Mexico.  After squaring off against another highly
regarded prospect in Evert Bravo, Chavez treated Las Vegas drug testers with a princely
contempt then commanded a princely sum to finish his decade in a fight with Daniel
Jacobs.

An influencer every step of the way, Chavez Jr. entered
Friday’s ring in Phoenix sporting a blue birthmark-like stain on his otherwise
platinum head.

After missing weight effortlessly at his Thursday
weighin, Chavez Jr. fought five rounds bravely till his nose got broken then
instructed his chief second to end the match. 
When that didn’t happen, Chavez Jr. made the sort of resounding decision
that separates champions from challengers, calling the referee over and stopping
the fight his own damn self.

An unappreciative Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. buried
his face in his hands.

As Chavez Jr. exited the ring Friday, his appreciative
if rambunctious fans in Arizona showered their returned king in gold.

Chavez Jr. departs his decade having defended
titles valiantly in the following divisions: 172 1/2, 171 1/2, 170 3/4, 164,
175 1/4 and 172 3/4.

*

As the decade in boxing draws to a close we are
right to reflect upon what metaphors Son of the Legend affords us.  Rumor was, Junior once cared about his craft,
whatever we opined of him.  His craft was
enriching himself and financially supporting his father’s retirement by doing
something he was not naturally endowed with a power to do.  He tried to escape boxing at nearly every
interval.

No truer moment in his career happened than when
he snapped at his ringside father’s advice from the stool of his Thomas &
Mack Center performance, yelling at him “¡Ya, Ya, Ya!” before collecting 100
more direct blows to the head from Sergio Martinez.

For beginning 2010 as a grifter, making whatever
promises were needed to keep the grift going, enduring massive and traumatic
abuse from his peers, lying to his fans over and again, cheating on drug tests before
simply failing them, scoffing at every traditional discipline, changing the
rules whenever convenient, and finally fleeing in 2019 his own paying customers
as they pelted him with beer and fought one another like savages, “Son of the
Legend” Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is boxing’s well-deserved Fighter of the Decade.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Photo By Ed Mulholland